1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to aircraft and more particularly to a new and novel auxiliary wing and flap assembly which permits the aircraft to land and take off in a substantially shorter distance while maintaining a high cruising speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of a split flap in aircraft is exceedingly conventional. It is common that the split flaps are to be located at the trailing edge of the wing of the aircraft. The primary purpose of the split flap is to increase lift and also decrease the speed of the aircraft. Generally, these split flaps are used during landing of the aircraft.
The present invention is to be discussed primarily in conjunction with small aircraft. The present invention is of particular advantage in conjunction with small aircraft. However, it is considered to be within the scope of this invention that the present invention could be utilized in conjunction with larger aircraft and even commercial aircraft.
Small aircraft that have only a single engine have a disadvantage when compared to multi-engine aircraft. If the single engine becomes inoperative during flight, obtaining quickly adequate landing space is, at times, difficult and many times almost impossible. Also, the aircraft may be coming down to the ground at too steep of an angle to perform any kind of a “soft landing”. It is for this reason that many times operators of small aircraft are killed or severely injured upon an engine problem occurring with the aircraft during flight.
Some airports are located very near congested areas. It is typical that the landing angle to be in the range of four to six degrees for most aircraft. This means that in a congested area where the airport is surrounded with buildings and houses that utilizing of a shallow angle of four to six degrees constitutes a rather dangerous situation. It would be safer if the aircraft could come in at a much steeper angle, such as between twenty and thirty degrees which would result in the aircraft avoiding the congested area located around the airport.
Also, when the aircraft is taking off in a congested location, it is desirable for the aircraft to get in the air as soon as possible and climb to a safe altitude to avoid congestion located directly adjacent the airport and to decrease noise pollution which is a frequent complaint around airports. Prior to the present invention, most aircraft have to take off and climb at a rather shallow angle and also require a significant runway length in order to get the airplane into the air. Utilizing of an extended runway length is again a potentially dangerous situation.
It would be desirable to construct an auxiliary wing and flap assembly to be deployable in conjunction with small aircraft that would permit the small aircraft to take off in a substantially shorter runway length and land also in a substantially shorter runway length. Also, it would be desirable to have the landing angle of the aircraft to be between twenty and thirty degrees which is substantially greater than the normal four to six degrees of most aircraft.